I Won't See You Tonight
by MusicFreak2k14
Summary: Link is depressed about a friend's death. Can Zelda help him? M for dark themes. AU
1. Chapter 1

**I Won't See You Tonight**

A Legend of Zelda story

(A/N) This story, which is mostly from Link's perspective, is not in any particular game; Link is still the Hero of Time, though. I don't own the characters, setting, etc; I own only the plot and any OCs.

"Is something wrong," Zelda asked me softly. She'd been asking all week. I was dealing with the loss of a good friend I'd met on my travels, with whom I'd kept in touch by writing letters back and forth. Vince was like me in a lot of ways and we immediately became good friends. It was like I'd known him for a lot longer than a few weeks, closer to a few months. As a result, I was absolutely devastated. His death wasn't particularly tragic but its effect was very strong. I was completely miserable.

I looked at her sullenly. "Must you ask that every time? It's the same thing every time. He was my best friend. It's like I've been ripped in half."

"You need to do something to get it off your mind," she advised quietly. "Dwelling on it is bad for you, Link."

"Do you think I can help it," I asked, trying to not lash out, as I'd been prone to doing. I'd already made Zelda cry from an outburst, totally unintentionally, of course.

Zelda hugged me and held me affectionately. "Do you think he'd want to see you like this," she asked, like she'd done before.

"No," I said sullenly, just like every other time. "He'd want me to be strong." I blinked back the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes. "But it's so hard, Zelda."

"I know," she soothed. "Look at me, Link." She cupped my cheek. "You are strong. You are the Hero of Time. You will make it through this. Link, what would you do if I died?"

"I," I had no idea what to say for a moment.

"Let's try something easier. What do you think I want you to do if I die?"

"You would want me to be strong."

"Yes. He is no different. You must be strong. No amount of moping will bring him back."

Anger rose in me quickly. "Do you know what it's like, Zelda? Do you know what it's like to lose something this close to you?"

"Don't forget; my parents died when I was young, Link."

"But you didn't have the ability to understand it at the time," I hissed. "You don't know what it feels like to know that someone so special died. It hurts so much. You don't know my pain, Zelda, so don't tell me that you do. Don't lie to me, Zelda."

"Link, I…" I cut her off.

"What, you're going to tell me that it's going to be okay? It's not going to be okay, Zelda. He was too special to me." I rose to my feet.

"W-where are you going," she asked timidly.

"That's none of your business. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take my leave, _Princess_," I seethed before storming out. I exited the castle and began to run. I ran as quickly as I could back to my house near Lon Lon Ranch. I ended up venting my anger on my training dummy. It was badly abused from all of my practice sessions and received yet more brutal punishment as I hacked at it. I ended up accidently destroying it, slicing it cleanly in half.

"Damn it," I growled to myself. "That should **not** have happened." I could stitch it up again, which I'd already done a few times, and did, but I was still rather annoyed that it had to break at that particular time.

A week passed and I'd done nothing except succumb to my depression. I slept way too much or sliced the dummy even more or practiced my hand-to-hand combat on the punching bag I had. That got pretty badly abused too.

Suddenly, when I least expected it, Zelda showed up at my door. "Link, dear," she said with concern.

I glared venomously at her. "Get out, Zelda. I'm in no mood to talk."

"What has gotten into you," she asked exasperatedly. "Get over it already. Stop acting like a child."

"Get out of my house, Zelda, now!"

"What are you going to do," she asked, with the slightest trace of a mocking tone in her voice.

"You don't want to know."

"Sure I don't," she continued.

"Zelda, stop right there."

"No," she said, uncharacteristically smug. She crossed her arms and smirked at me, only angering me further. I lost some restraint.

I reached for my sword, only to frighten. I failed.

"Would you really use your sword on me, the princess of Hyrule, but more importantly, your beloved girlfriend?"

I snarled, "Don't make me do it. Be a good girl and leave my house. I'm not in the mood to see you."

"You'd kill the princess? That's punishable by death, you know," she said daintily. She gave a last laugh then walked out the door.

The next few feelings followed in the span of about five minutes. I stared as she left, mouth open in shock. Then I began to feel more anger due to the sting in my pride from her mocking. Finally, I began to cry. I couldn't take it. I knew Zelda was right, about everything, but I couldn't do anything about it. I collapsed on my bed in tears, a rare occurrence for me.

The next thing that happened nearly made me jump. I heard Zelda's voice speaking in my head. _That's right_, she said soothingly. _There may be nothing you can do alone, but there is something you can do if I help you._

_You've never done this before,_ I thought. _Why start now?_

_I can feel auras of those close to my heart. Yours was an absolute mess. Link, please don't push me away. I want to help you heal, help you get over it._

_There's nothing you can do._ More tears spilled out of my eyes.

_You'd be surprised. I know more tricks than I tell you._

_And what will help?_

_It's risky but I can take the pain out of your memories, transfer it to myself, then transfer it to a bin for disposal. It's like changing water._

_What happens if something goes wrong?_ I was beginning to like this idea of Zelda's.

_The best-case scenario is that I just get depressed and then it wears off eventually. Worst-case is that I screw up, leaving you with some of it, and only taking some, leading to my own agony. It may be as bad as suicidal thoughts. Impa taught me about this technique and told me of its risks. But she said that successes are very beneficial for the person on whom this is done._

_Let's try it._

_Come to the castle immediately. Tell the guards that I have requested you personally._

_I'll be there in 20 minutes._

(A/N) Chapter one is done. Hope you enjoyed it. What happens next? Will Zelda succeed in helping Link or will they both suffer? Stay tuned to find out. Please review. Thanks :)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

(A/N) So I got a review saying that Link seemed overly OOC. My answer is this: I like to explore characters' dark sides. I think that Link's dark side would involve a lot of verbal abuse and lashing out because he's so quiet in the games that it's like he's bottling up his emotions. When that happens, eventually the person explodes and that's what I'm going for in Link. So there's that. Now, enough of me. Time for the story.

I approached the castle, thinking through a bunch of outcomes of Zelda's suggestion. The positive ones did seem pretty good to me but the negative ones made me very skeptical. _If Zelda fails I might have suicidal thoughts?_ The idea scared me but I persisted.

"Link," the guards addressed me with crisp nods.

"Morning, fellows."

"Business in the castle?"

"I've been requested to see Princess Zelda."

They jeered at me. "Sure," the taller one said. "War's over. You ain't got a reason to see Her Highness." I knew that the guards could be quite surly but I'd never witnessed such disrespect from them.

"Yes I do," I snapped. "I was personally to requested to visit her."

"You got no proof," he shot back.

"I was contacted telepathically by her," I shouted.

"But you can't prove that," he roared back. The other guard readied his spear to either prod me away or possibly impale me. Though I was wearing my usual tunic and armor out of habit, I hoped it was the former.

"Go ask her yourself and she'll tell you that I have permission to enter the castle!" I almost considered skipping past them by using my Hookshot but refrained, which took a lot of self-control. I was also tempted to stun them with Deku nuts. That also took a lot of my self-control.

"Sure," he jeered. "Go check," he ordered his partner while still keeping eye contact with me. It was a cold glare that I returned.

After 10 minutes, which I thought was way too long for the task the guard had to perform, said guard returned. "Let him in," he said sullenly. "Her Highness did request his presence."

"Fine," the tall guard huffed, reluctantly stepping to let me pass. We continued to exchange cold glares as I passed him.

Bitterly muttering obscene things about the guards, I stormed to Zelda's chambers.

"Link, you made it," she said with relief.

"Yeah, no thanks to those goddess-damned guards," I snarled.

"I'm sorry about them," she said softly, reaching out to gently cup my cheek and caress it.

"Whatever," I said, shaking her hand away. "Let's just get this done."

"Are you sure you want to try this? I've never tried it before and chances are high that something could go wrong." Zelda looked at me with a very concerned expression.

"Zelda, if you're willing to try, I want to do this. If you can help me take away my depression, I want to do this. I'm sure of this."

"Ok." She pointed to a fold-out medical cot. A nightstand with a basin was beside it. "Lie down. Face up or face down, whatever is more comfortable. Either one is fine for actually performing the procedure." I decided to lie face up, as if sleeping. "Good, relax." I began to take slow deep breaths and droop my eyelids, as if putting myself in a trance, and Zelda began whispering soothingly, helping me to further relax.

_Third-person narrator_

Zelda's hands were trembling slightly from anxiety. _What if I screw up and both of us suffer from it_, she kept thinking. She worried about that a lot.

After probing Link's mind for a while, Zelda found the memories and thoughts that were troubling her beloved. She immediately understood why he suffered so much. They indeed were very unpleasant memories to behold. She could feel all of his pain and suffering. It was overwhelming her very much. She struggled to contain it.

_I can't let this overcome me,_ she thought, trying to fight off the growing sense of dread and hopelessness from the thoughts, of which there were many.

Zelda could feel her own energy draining as she continued to siphon the memories out of Link's head. She managed to get them all out and began to transfer them to the bin she had put on the nightstand. She felt very weak and had difficulty concentrating. She could even feel herself becoming very drowsy. Before she was able to finish the job, she completely lost consciousness, some of the agonizing thoughts trapped inside of her. Link awakened soon after.

_Link's POV_

When I woke up, I immediately noticed that I felt a whole lot better than I did when I walked into Zellie's chambers. _She did it_, I thought. _She got it all out._ I looked at the bin beside me and nearly vomited at the sight. It was disgusting, with colors resembling feces, vomit, and blood all rolled into one. Then my heart stopped.

Zelda was lying on the ground with some of the waste-colored stuff staining her dress and face. Fear gripped me.

"Zelda," I said nervously. No response. "Zelda, wake up!"

Making sure my hand was fully encased in my hat to avoid possible harm from touching the stuff, I tried to feel for a pulse on her neck. I felt one but it was very faint.

"Impa," I hollered, hoping the Sheikah attendant would hear. I bolted to her chamber, which was thankfully just down the hallway. I knocked on the door frantically.

"Link," she said, slightly aggravated, "What is the matter?"

"Something's wrong with Zelda!"

"Oh Nayru," she said. We returned to Zelda's chambers. Upon seeing her, Impa swore loudly and rushed to her side.

"Give me your hat," she demanded. I complied. "You are smart, using your hat as a glove. Memories with that appearance when extracted are poisonous if enough of the essence touches bare skin. A few drops will not harm. But that much," she gestured to what was on Zelda's face, "could be fatal." She used my hat as a rag then burned it on the spot with magic. "I hope you do not mind."

"I have a few more," I said, producing another from the pouch on my hip that magically shrank anything inside it. "Need another?" She shook her head so I put in on the way I liked it.

"Go into my chamber. On my nightstand next to my bed is a pot filled with clear potion. Bring it to me. But use care as the pot is of glass."

I nodded and rushed into the attendant's chambers, found what I needed, and swiftly but still carefully brought it to Impa.

"This potion is used for this very procedure," she explained while applying it wherever the disgusting stuff was. "It is a cleansing potion that is used after performing the procedure that Zelda used on you. She was foolish not to get this from my chamber if she was going to do this, especially when I have emphasized to her the importance of this potion. I have said it many times." She clicked her tongue in disapproval. "Usually, the one performing the procedure would dip his or her hands into the potion after extracting everything. The essence would flow into it and be neutralized."

"Will Zelda be okay," I asked, noting that very little potion remained.

Impa looked at me grimly, also aware of how little potion was left. "I know not. If she recovers, it will be within minutes. Stay with her. I will go to Kakariko Village to try to obtain more potion. If you have any bottles of red or blue potion, I advise you to administer them to her to increase her chance of recovery. I will return as quickly as possible."

"Right," I said. Impa disappeared with the flash of a Deku nut. I rummaged in my bag and found a single bottle of red potion. Uncorking it and putting it to Zelda's lips, I prayed to the goddesses for Zelda's recovery. I gently tipped her head up to get the last of the potion into her system and she did swallow it. _Good girl,_ I thought. I checked her pulse. It was still very weak. I prayed harder and more desperately to the goddesses as time passed. I wondered where Impa was. _It shouldn't take this long to get some potion,_ I thought frantically, wishing I could also teleport, so as to go to the potion shop in Castle Town Market.

(A/N) Ooh, cliffhanger. Will Zelda survive? Where's Impa? What will Link do? Find out in the next chapter, and probably last, chapter. As always, please review and tell me what you thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

(A/N) Here's the last chapter for this story. Nothing for me to say except please review and leave constructive criticism.

_Link's POV_

Impa finally came back with more potion after nearly half an hour. "I apologize," she said. "There was none in Kakariko so I had to go to Castle Town Market. It was very busy, especially the potion shop. I managed to get the last vial of cleansing potion available." She immediately set to work applying the potion to Zelda. "How fares the princess?"

"She's still alive, but just barely. Her pulse keeps getting weaker and weaker."

"I have very little time, then," she muttered to herself, applying the potion where it was needed.

The last drops were eventually used up. Unfortunately, Zelda's heartbeat had not strengthened.

"Curses," the Sheikah swore. "We have run out of potion yet again. Check her pulse."

I tenderly put my fingers to Zelda's wrist. I nearly cried because I felt nothing. "She's dead," I said, trying to remain strong. "Zelda has no pulse. It faded."

"Say it is not so," she said worriedly, also gently putting two fingers to Zelda's other wrist. Her face contorted in pain and anguish. "No…"

My control vanished as I dropped to my knees at her hand, sobbing. "Zelda," I repeated over and over. "No…"

I heard Impa slip out of the room as I continued mourning. "Zelda…my princess…"

The public ceremony was a few days later. I could barely watch it because I was so depressed.

The next day, I rode off, far from Hyrule. I've not returned since and I have no plans to ever go back. Zelda was my first love and she will be my only love. It was hard but I've moved on and gotten over the death. But she still holds a special place in my heart and always will.


End file.
